Rin-sayara, rinaru-sa…
Little Tail Bronx (「リトルテイルブロンクス」, Ritoruteiruburonkusu) is a Shared Universe of games created by CyberConnect2, inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki (with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Castle in the Sky being among the most prominent influences) with a few hints of Mega Man here and there. Populated by anthropomorphic dogs and cats known as Caninu and Felineko, Little Tail Bronx is set in a World in the Sky with fantastic airships, vehicles and personal mechas galore. Beneath the cheerful surface, however, there are also many ruins and weapons from ages long past scattered across the endless sky of floating islands, and there are quite a few villains out there that have taken a devious interest in them. When those times come around, it's up to new heroes to rise up and embark on journeys to save their world.
The games in this series are:
- Tail Concerto (PlayStation; 1998 JP, 1999 FR/NA)
- Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (Japanese subtitle: Sore Kara CODA eTranslation) (Nintendo DS; 2010 JP, 2011 ITN)
- Little Tail Story (iOS/Android; 2014 JP)
- Fuga: Melodies of Steel series:
- Fuga: Melodies of Steel (Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PC; 2021 ITN)
- Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 (Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PC; 2023 ITN)
- Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3 (TBA)
Tropes that apply to the series as a whole:
- Alternate History: As shown by information
shared in a Solatorobo art book, the history of the series' universe mainly diverges from our own at around the mid-20th century, following the initial discovery of the Juno in 1971 and its utilization by humanity in the decades following. Also mentioned is that a war broke out in the Middle East in March of 2003, followed by World War III a year later, and the "Reset" that restarted all life on the planet some time afterwards. That said, the same art book notes that Kublai Khan used the power of Juno to expand the Mongol Empire and implies that Jerusalem itself was once under his dominion as well, indicating that thanks to the presence of Juno the Earth of Little Tail Bronx may not have had a true point of divergence after all. - Artificial Animal People: The Caninu and Felineko came into existence after the Juno information system erased humanity and terraformed the Earth to purify it of their war. The Juno then used the data of all other living organisms to re-seed the planet with new life, eventually mixing in cats and dogs with the human genome through a process of rapid evolution. A piece of supplementary material for Solatorobo: Red the Hunter explains why cats and dogs were specifically chosen as humanity's successors: Yurlungur, the personality AI that was birthed from Australia's Juno so that it could interact with humans, not only valued the two species for their adaptability to different environments, but the research team she interacted with also took care of some cats and dogs as a way to manage their mental health, which she interpreted as an act of love on their behalf.
- Bilingual Bonus: The word "bronx", New York City borough aside, is a lesser-used French term roughly meaning "chaos" or "disorder".
- Central Theme: Even in the face of despair or destruction, the world is still here. People can absolutely grow past their sins and mistakes and become stronger by working together.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- Tail Concerto's main villain is Fool, a black arms dealer who goads the Black Cats Gang into collecting crystals to awaken an ancient super-weapon known as the Iron Giant so he can try and rule the world with it. He's also the only villain to never be fought directly in battle, given how "physical labor isn't [his] style".
- Solatorobo: Red the Hunter has Bruno Dondurma for the first half of the game, leader and founder of the respected Kurvaz Hunter's Guild that wants to awaken Lares to spread his dominance throughout the world. But following his defeat, the second half has his role supplanted by Baion, who believes himself to be Gaia's Vengeance and wants to commit mass genocide, believing the Caninu and Felineko races to be "failures" no better than the humans of eons ago. He also doesn't have a military force of his own to carry out his dirty work, as he and his creations Nero and Blanck are more than powerful enough to level an entire city themselves.
- The original Fuga: Melodies of Steel gives us Colonel General Shvein Hax, the man commanding the all-out invasion of Gasco on behalf of the Berman Army. Like Fool and Bruno, his ultimate goal is to reawaken a Living Weapon to wield its power for his own ends, but that's where the similarities end. Unlike Fool, he has an entire army at his disposal as opposed to just the Black Cats Gang, and he's also not too lazy or cowardly to fight the heroes himself, since he actively encourages the children to try and fight him once his plan is in motion. And unlike Bruno was seemingly motivated by nothing more than a desire to Take Over the World and attain power purely for the sake of it, Hax is motivated by Patriotic Fervor and doesn't even bother trying to be a Villain with Good Publicity since he truly believes what he's doing is righteous and is aided mostly by subordinates who feel the same. To a lesser degree, Hax is also the first villain to be a Mirror Boss, as his Tarascus tank is functionally similar to the children's Taranis.
- Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 has Cayenne Riesling, as revealed late into the game. On the surface he's something of a Mirror Character to Hax, a Felineko from Gasco who's out to attack Berman while Hax was a Berman Caninu out to attack Gasco. However, as more of his machinations are revealed it's evident that he's not motivated by any sort of Patriotic Fervor like Hax was, and only cares about his own personal vendetta against Berman for the deaths of his wife and son. By the time he's nearly succeeded in his plans he's eager to destroy both nations just to suit himself, while Hax at the very least never relented on his loyalty to Berman and never did anything to harm it up to the very end.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
- Tail Concerto's main protagonist is Waffle Ryebread, a Nice Guy police officer that would rather avoid confrontation, tries multiple times to talk down Alicia and The Black Cats Gang from attacking Prairie, and whose main method of attack is to use his Bubble Gun to restrain kittens long enough for him to capture them safely.
- By contrast, the titular Red Savarin of Solatorobo: Red the Hunter is a hot-blooded Jerk with a Heart of Gold that works independently on odd jobs, and his first instinct towards dealing with any problem is to pick it up and throw it until it explodes. He's also quite immature, constantly getting into petty squabbles with his sister Chocolat and friend Elh, whereas Waffle is at least responsible with his words and actions.
- The Fuga: Melodies of Steel series has Malt Marzipan as the de facto protagonist of an ensemble cast in the first game, before affirming him as the definite main character from the second game onward. Unlike how Waffle is an established police officer and how Red is a cocky adventurer-for-hire, Malt starts the game as a humble farmhand boy who enjoys the country lifestyle as opposed to someone already experienced with adventure or conflict. While it's easy to see how he contrasts Red's Idiot Hero Blood Knight nature in that he hates fighting and acts as the unconditional protector of the rest of the kids on the Taranis (and how his doting relationship with his younger sister Mei is a complete inversion of Red's bickering relationship with his younger sister Chocolat), Malt still manages to contrast Waffle due to the burden of responsibility he places upon himself as the one leading his crew, which results in him developing a more cynical and pragmatic side as he and his friends keep getting dragged into conflict, compared to Waffle's unshakable All-Loving Hero nature.
- Cosmic Horror Reveal: Every game is rife with this, as each adventure usually starts with "local hero in a mecha is tasked with stopping an egotistical villain from trying to Take Over the World", before suddenly throwing everything out of scale and ramping up the stakes with the introduction of the warped Titano-Machina, which are presented as Always Chaotic Evil with legends and stories about how they bring about great calamity every time they are awakened. What makes it interesting is that the Titano-Machina are all man-made, using the gifts bestowed upon humanity by the godly Juno. Solatorobo initially subverts this by introducing Lares early on, with most of the plot involving Red and Elh running around trying to stop it and Bruno... only to end up Double Subverted thanks to the second half of the game, with Baion using Lares and Lemures to open Tartaros, which sits firmly within another dimension, to enact total genocide through the CODA command. The only game that escapes this outright is Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2, thanks to that game being a direct sequel rather than a non-linear one, so the cosmic horror elements aren't seen as shocking and is actually expected from the cast given all they learned in the first game.
- Expanded Universe: Outside the games, the series also features a good chunk of background information hidden behind (unfortunately officially untranslated) short stories and light novels, the most famous of these being Solatorobo's "Red Data Children", which is a direct prequel to that game. The one that really stands out, however, is Mamoru-Kun, which was initially created to be a series of Public Service Announcements for CyberConnect2's local government in Fukuoka, yet retains enough consistency and lore elements to be fully integrated within the greater Little Tail Bronx mythos. Fan translations for most of the supplementary material for Solatorobo can be found here.
- Genre Shift: Tail Concerto and Solatorobo are optimistic Action-Adventure games that boast full 3D movement, direct combat, and (somewhat) lighthearted stories. Little Tail Story is a mobile exclusive gacha RPG utilizing a rotating Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors system. The Fuga series is way Darker and Edgier, more linear in terms of progression, and revels in the RPG nature with full-on skills and weapon classes, while featuring a more melancholic narrative compared to its predecessors.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All of the games have musical terms in their titles, at least in the original Japanese. A concerto is a piece of music written for a single instrument alongside an orchestra and made up of three contrasting movements; a coda refers to the end of a piece of music; and a fuga (or fugue) is a piece of music with multiple voices that each imitate a subject melody.
- Mechanical Abomination: The Titano-Machina, which are all treated as walking Knights of Cerebus whenever they appear.
- Non-Linear Sequel: Solatorobo, the second game in the series, rightfully takes place after Tail Concerto, but Fuga: Melodies of Steel, the third game in the series, takes place before even Tail Concerto, with two additional games taking place within that same time period following suit, meaning the order of the series, going by numerical placement, would be 3 > 4 > 5 > 1 > 2.
- World in the Sky: These games take place on floating islands that the inhabitants travel between using airships. The surface world is blocked by an electrified cloud sea.
- World of Mammals: The two races are anthropomorphic dogs and cats.
